Potemkin

While commentating on Game 2 of the Aronian-Kramnik match Shipov wrote: “I’m at home in Moscow in the company of 2 cats and 3 computers. I consult them constantly when studying a position, but I don’t trust any of them”. Evgeny Potemkin’s videos filmed during Game 2 of the World Championship match reveal those weren’t empty words.

Hopefully, at least, as the chess didn’t go quite so well for them! The brunette team won the April Fool’s Day blitz match in Moscow’s Central Chess Club by a crushing 20-point margin, with Nazi Paikidze and Daria Charochkina finishing joint first in the individual standings.

With his win on tie-breaks in the Russian Championship, Ian Nepomniachtchi, born in the same year as Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin and now 2732.8 on the live rating list, confirmed he’s back in contention for the highest honours in chess.

On the eve of the World Blitz Championship an event was held in Moscow for the opening of the Russian Women’s Championship – where the women were joined by Magnus Carlsen and many of the Tal Memorial players, and Vladimir Kramnik played against a robot.

Levon Aronian crossed 2800 on the November FIDE rating list, and on the eve of the Tal Memorial he told Evgeny Surov of the new Chess-News website how that made him feel and what he expects from the tournament.